Create & email supplier statements / supplier remittance advice

The ability to create and email remittance advices/supplier statements to suppliers to let them know which invoices have been paid.---Specific request for Supplier Activity Statements here. Thanks! Brittany, Community Manager.

YES- I miss that feature too - it is the only thing i miss from our old software- apparently it is in one of the next versions but I was disappointed when it wasn't in the latest update. I thought this was a feature that would be compolsory for any business - I know you can get a report but it isn't the same & who has time to do this when they are doing 100s of remittances monthly?

I have been informed that this feature is still in the pipeline and that there is not much interest in it which is why it hasn't been developed yet but from what I have been reading about, it seems to have been talked about for the last 2 years. This is a feature that is needed by more and more businesses and yet it still seems to be in the thinking process and not in the doing process

Yes - totally miss this. I've just moved to Xero and send approx 50-100 payments to suppliers every month and it's a pain emailing remittances. Either the ability to do it through Xero, or simply the ability to download a list of the invoices that each payment is for would be awesome.

For example:

Supplier A paid £500.00 for:Invoice1Invoice2Invoice3

etc.

At the moment, I copy the table from the confirm batch payment screen (1 supplier at a time) into Excel, copy the invoice number column and paste into Notepad and then copy/paste it into my email (to get it in as clean text).

If anyone has a faster solution to this - would be much appreciated.Thanks.

I just logged in to see if anyone else had found a good way to email remittance advices, as I was disappointed to find the feature was not available in Xero. I am trialling Xero at the moment to see if it is an option instead of Sage. The accountants recommending Xero suggested I print pdfs of the invoices I am paying and email those, but it is very long winded as I would have to go into each individual invoice and print and save it as a pdf and then email it. I tried selecting all the relevant invoices to print, but that just saved them as one pdf document which I would then have to scan back in as individual ones, so not a very satisfactory solution.

If anyone from Xero is reading these posts - there is a need for emailing of remittance advices if this package is going to be a serious contender with Sage.

YEAH- I was promised this feature when we first started using Xero in May last year & we have since started using Xero for another company. This is my main concern with using Xero & I think this need to be made priority also. I think by the response from this would show that everybody wants this feature as it has been one of the most popular requests so far. Please.......

Much needed- when you pay some suppliers 20-50 invoices at end of month they aren't going to sit down & work it out I have found. I you are only paying one invoice per supplier of course it wouldn't be required as much.

Hi everyone. See Rod's comments on the Xero Linkedin group. 3 months away. Also see my response to get around it. I am sending 20 - 30 remittances twice per week, so I have the process down smoothly. However push a button in 3 months will be great. Cheers, Bill

I have been told that this is coming soon but you can create one for yourself from within your supplier's Contact record, click on the 'View Report' link under Payable Invoices. This generates a report for the period you define showing invoices and payments. You can export this into Excel and customise if required, or print as a PDF. The report can then be emailed to your suppliers as a remittance advice.

Once again agree with Jacki. This is the biggest issue we have in converting clients to Xero. A RCTI system in purchasing, a simple Purchase Order flow to supplier invoices and of course the Remittances. Cannot wait. Seems to have been dragging forever.

This is great news that it's on it's way, coming from quickbooks it does annoy me when I have to admit to myself that QB did something better... and payment remittance is one of those things. I send it to all of my suppliers to say which invoices have been paid.

Unfortunately not days away I'm afraid. This is an extremely important feature to you guys I know but the need to carry out some important performance-related work has pushed the schedule around a bit so we're still a couple of months away I'm sorry.

I am considering switching to XERO - but before I do so I wanted to make sure that I will be able to create Statement of Account for my suppliers. I have noticed that is very easy to create a Statement and send it for Accounts Receivables but in Accounts Payable there isn't a function to do this. For years our suppliers have asked us to send them such statements to reconcile accounts. Is there a way to this in XERO.

Oh no, we've just signed up a whole lot of clients pre March (it's extremely important for clients in our industry to have this feature in their accg software as they make large payments batches of smallish amounts every week)....and told them it was coming out this month at the latest. Looks like they'll have to go back to MYOB, and we'll have egg on our face....not great Catherine!

Issam - you are correct at the moment but it is coming in the near future - a full remittance feature according to an event I went to on Friday. By the time you get switched over it will probably be here. The great thing about Xero is the regular updates that add functionality like this without having to install updates everytime

Duncan & Toplis

@Glenn - sorry about the egg but as I said above it's underway. Understand the delays are frustrating (they are for us too!) but we need Xero to be stable so made a call to address this as a priority even though it's mucked around our delivery schedule.

Although it seems a long running issue and completely covered here but yep I must admit I thought this would be a given in any modern accounting software. It seem such a small add on feature as the other emailing features are already there, can anyone explain the delay?

I have spent a good deal of time laying the cloud computing fears to rest with potential and existing clients. It was all smiles until I lost two sales this week because:a) No simple method of printing the PO with the company address (Logo would be luxury) and b) No payment remittance advice to a supplier is available.

Both clients were ready to migrate from existing software and neither were prepared to accept my workarounds which is understandable.

This is letting down an otherwise very good product. These items, if dealt with simply (ie through just making printing a draft purchase invoice and batch payment available), don't require a major re-write.

We run a holiday letting business where our "suppliers" are just as important as our guest "customers". We also make payments on behalf of our suppliers, provide them with services, and in some cases have to make withholding tax deductions. For us unallocated supplier credit notes are very important.

The comment at the bottom of an Accounts Payable credit note "This is not a legal credit note" in particular is most unhelpful.

Similarly missing credit notes from the Accounts Payable due date report means extreme care is required not to over pay suppliers (our landlords).

Please could the next upgades include:1. Supplier statement (based on due date) that includes unallocated credit notes.2. Acounts Payable invoices (due date) report that includes unallocated credit notes.3. Ability to improve appearance of Accounts Payable invoices and credit notes in the same way is that is presently possible in Accounts Receiveable.

This all started in February but according to Dawn Horan's comments in February, it has been going on for a couple of years. We keep finding reasons why we should probably return to MYOB as it had many features missing in XERO. As the comments come through, we just seem to get more excuses.

I felt a bit silly that I hadn't checked before moving two big clients onto Xero that remittances weren't an option. Still waiting a year later. I was surprised to realise that you can backdate an Aged Payable report (to a date prior to payment of a supplier) and then export to excel and then cut and paste to an email. Still clunky but another option. Bring on those remittances!

@Catherine, is there any update when this feature will be released? I have a new client who is enthusiastic about their move Xero with all of it's great features, but is quite horrified (for want of a better word) that they need to send their 100+ supplier remittance advices per month manually.

Actually what I would really like is for the information to remain on the Clients Xero system and for the supplier/customer to be able to just click a link in an email which gives them access to an electronic copy.

Xero are missing a trick here because every email could have a little message saying "Produced by Xero" and when clicked it presents a page with the advisors and Xero contact details with advice on how to buy the software. Free advertising.

Chris Farrant: If there was any Xero Branding on my invoices I could close my account immediately, i suspect a lot of other would as well. all i want my clients to see is MY branding and not my suppliers.

This is starting to get really annoying - I have several businesses who are crying out for this. Please can it be made a higher priority, even if we get a simple version which is enhanced at a later date

Duncan & Toplis

Will this be available this year (as in by the end of Dec 2012) ? if the answer to this in no then I suspect you have no intention of doing it at all and your hoping people will get fed up of asking.

Waiting Waiting - Below quted from CEO 4 mths ago - perhaps its time to update us all

For the sake of clarity. In development means that we are writing code now. As soon as it is built (hopefully completed in the next month) we schedule it in for testing. We are doing remittance advices with another big bit of related functionality but I would expect to see it in a few releases. Hopefully around 3 months depending on testing schedules.

I understand the frustration you guys must be feeling. I am part of a construction company setup on the cloud and while Xero looked like the perfect solution, emailing remittance advices was a key requirement. What i liked about Xero was its developer API's and began to look at ways to create my own remittance advice management.

I have come up with a solution, it sits on the Google App engine and uses its email API's and the Google Datastore to manage the remittance advices. I am apprehensive in investing to much time in this given that this functionality could only be 3 months away but if people are desperate for this functionality i have got code and would be prepared set it up.

For the record we're not hoping people will get fed up and stop asking - it's coming. Each time we have a release we give an indication of what we're currently working on that's making good enough progress to be considered for an upcoming release - you can keep track of this on the release notes. I know the wait is frustrating, we're getting closer but no firm date yet.

This is hopless- we have just switched over to Xero - this is VERY frustrating and on reading everyone elses comments they are too. Please tell me how I am supposed to pay a supplier $1000.00's of dollars over 100's of invoices and not tell them what it was for? When converting to Xero we were promised that it was the latest and greatest. Not without remittances - wish we did not convert until this SUPPOSED 'remittance' release. GRRRRR

Another big hole in Xero! I should have know when I saw their slogan as "beautiful accounting" not "complete, practical, useful or good etc... you get the point...

What confuses me is how other competitors with much smaller backing (funding) are able to provide most the features that are requested here... I think too much is spent on marketing and not enough on development. It's just the way it feels. (sorry to be such a cry baby :-)

just have to add my comment - through various logins and companies - our companies now have 15 instances of Xero operating. When converting over 12 months ago - i am positive i read that they were in the 'next release'. The last release came through and again without it – and sparked me to look. When doing this, I have just seen today that there is a voting system - and that things like API extensions have received more votes. I think you must remember that the day to day business user (the people paying the fees) won't bother spending time on forums voting, they tend to just get on with the job with the tools at hand. Emailing remittances is simply vital and saves hours and hours of reconciliation by businesses and suppliers. Be grateful if you can turn your resources to solving this problem.

Someone mentioned on here that other online accounts packages did do a lot of the features that xero does not, can anyone throw in some of these software names? It gives everyone who wants theses features the chance to look at other options. The big reason I came to xero over the others was the very customisable invoices and that you could have different branded invoices. Whilst that feature is great I keep finding things where I have to create a work-around. I came from quickbooks so maybe I am expecting too much?

You're not expecting too much. I also came from QB and have been somewhat disappointed. Accounting software should do what accounting practice needs. Such as sending remittance advice's, multiple emails contacts per client, proper AR reports etc and although not necessarily for accounting, professional and efficient business practice is also important. Such as email templates, html capability, email reminders etc (I could go on, but I do so else where :-) I just want change so we can do our job properly.

Before signing up and converting to Xero I trialed a number of other software systems that are a lot better in so many ways. The reason why I chose Xero is that they are close to home and are well backed by some big boys. However I think most of their backing has gone to marketing not product development. (although Xero is slick and shiny I lacks what really matters)

I felt a bit bad putting competitor details on this forum but I am sure it will help others and save them from getting stuck in Xero. (sorry it's come to this Xero) Check out these:

Zoho Books - I really really like this one, it had loads of features, was easy to use and it linked to lots of other great business tools. Oh and it less than half the price of Xero without the need of paying even more for extensions such as debtor daddy (another $30pm) The ONLY reason why I did not end up using was that I required tracking columns on my invoices. I could have got around this in other ways and in hindsight it may have been easier than all the work-arounds required in Xero.

Saasu - A great Aussie product. VERY reasonable pricing from $9 - 60 per month. They also have discount for long term users (which is probably everyone) Feature rich product that seems to be progressing quickly in terms of features. Sure interface is not as fresh and nice as Xero, but is that really worth twice as much and sacrifice on features?

Sorry Xero, please don't spit on my burger. I'd rather just see you pick up the game, you are capable!

@LB - you're very welcome to post your thoughts on competitors on our Community - good and bad points. Everyone needs to choose accounting software that suits their business which is why we offer a free trial and free unlimited support. There will be no spitting! To your earlier point, we spread our funding across all parts of the business - supporting 100,000 customers and improving the product and keeping everything secure and telling people about the product are all important aspects.

Hi Catherine, I was at Xerocon and saw the demo..FANTASTIC....... but I want it for myself and my clients now! Really hoped that it was going to be released this past weekend. Any more news from your dev team? Its now the seventh of August and need it tomorrow!

@Philip We try to give realistic estimates but don't give exact dates or months until much closer to the time. We've usually got multiple tweaks to features or new features in the development pipeline at once, all at different stages and once a good round of testing and bug fixing and incorporating that feature into the main application is looking good for a particular thing we can start to focus on that being something to release next. It's not viable for us to have all our developers working on one thing and not making progress on anything else. From time to time things crop up that far outweigh work on a feature, if we need to redirect resources to performance or stability work - we can't risk Xero being out of action so sometimes important maintenance takes precedence. None of this is an excuse - just telling you how it is - I can assure you we're frustrated at times too when timeframes are stretched but we don't want to release something that's buggy or half finished. And it's so very disappointing and annoying for everyone if we say a particular date then miss on that promise. Testing is going well.

Waiting, but not holding my breath. I too would have expected a remittance as a basic request from an accounts package. I use the report method from the contacts but it is long winded. Look forward to its release.

At the Xero Workshops in Bristol and London last week the development "Road Map" listed enhancements including remittances and invoices on-line access, VAT filing and EC Sales Lists, Purchase orders and quotes, global search (in your accounts), multiple budgets and an Android version of Touch. No order of release was available. No specific dates given but the indications are that some are not far off.

Thanks Kelly for your work around..I have been told that this is coming soon but you can create one for yourself from within your supplier's Contact record, click on the 'View Report' link under Payable Invoices. This generates a report for the period you define showing invoices and payments. You can export this into Excel and customise if required, or print as a PDF. The report can then be emailed to your suppliers as a remittance advice.

I agree that this sucks and unbelievable that Xero can't produce something as standard as a remittance advice. It would help if Xero could add a column showing date paid.

I have just used it - fantastic and about time. I had a heap of remittances that I was putting off doing as it was so time consuming, now when you do a batch you can just click a button and email all the remittances.Thanks Xero

Well done Xero. Really appreciate that development takes time. Being a former desktop acconting systems user 7 months from request to launch is fast. In fact a lot of accounting software developers would struggle to address the requests at all. It should have been part of the initial tool set but we have it now. This is one of the big deal breakers in th UK and will help more sales of Xero. Thanks.

No, Richard you are not overlooking the obvious. I have tried using the remittances for cheque payments but they do not display all the information (and I have tried it several different ways). Also the way that Xero is set up means that I cannot use it for batch payments as although I may only have 17 suppliers to pay, they will span 2 pages on Xero meaning I would have to do several batches thus making more work and not less.

I've switched from Sage, and am horrified by the lack of proper reports available in Xero. Not something I checked out in advance as it didn't occur to me that basics like Supplier Statements wouldn't be available. And the inability to customise anything is hugely frustrating. In Sage, I used to select one nominal code, run one report for a specified time period, and got a page-per-supplier report that I could print or save. To get something similar (but still lacking some information) from Xero would take hours.Did I mention this is hugely frustrating?

Here is a quick way to simulate a supplier/creditor activity report:1. From the Account Transactions report, generate a report for the month for the Accounts Payable account and export it to Excel. 2. In Excel delete rows 6 and 8 (these are blank and will prevent the filter from working)3. Switch on the auto filter. 4. Now search the filter for column C for your contact - accepting "Payment: contact" as well.

You now have a report showing all the activity in the creditor account for the month. If you get the total due to that supplier (from your Aged Payables report for the previous month) the total of these should now agree to the Xero supplier balance (from your Aged Payables report for the current month).